Not A Soldier, But A Scoundrel: The Lives and Deaths of George W. Graham

George W. Graham joined the Union Army in 1861. Already a publicity seeker, he would be more remembered for his pillaging with southern Unionists than for heroism. Later, as a commander of the first of the Buffalo Soldier troops, he was court-martialed and cashiered at Fort Leavenworth. He moved further west where his reputation as an outlaw and criminal followed, and worsened. By the time he died at the hands of a town fed up, he was making national newspapers. Despite being the kind of story one would see in Western pulps, it was quickly forgotten. This is the result of three years of research, beginning with the author’s discovery of a lone photograph, and ending in North Carolina, where Graham first made a name for himself.